Last night, I was spending time with friends of mine I hadn’t seen in a few weeks.

We go to talking about the wars, the dangers, and the overall life in World of Warcraft.

One of my friends hates PvP, like another friend of mine does(Rilgon, I’m looking at you). However, when I asked why, it was entirely about balance. His first response was that it was too hard to get into, and that it’s required a lot more work to begin playing PvP.

Which, I said, was bogus. Harder to get into?

I spent 3 weeks getting the PvE gear I have. I’ve spent, easily, 7 000+ gold staying equipped for it. I’ve been glued to my screen when there wasn’t anything more pressing than WoW to do.

1 week of PvP. I have 524 resilience(which isn’t bad, or so I’m told) and a successful arena team. I’ve spent 1 000 – 2 000 gold, max. In all honesty, I found it so much easier than PvE. PvE, you step into instance after instance hoping to get the drop you want. For me, I was incredibly lucky. I got a lot of loot very quickly due to an amazing amount of luck. But most people don’t have that kind of loot luck.

In fact, the reason that all of my friends quit WoW was because raiding was “a full-time job”. A fun one, maybe, but a job? How is that easier to get into? There are applications to get into the bigger guilds, and it has been pointed out that some of them are just pointless posturing. Either way, you need a resume to play a game? That’s not easy to get into at all.

To keep this fair, we’re not going to mention that battlegrounds are available as early as level 10, that a PvP server is a constant PvP fight, and that the money cost is lower. For one, when you hit 80, the higher end brackets are all available right there. No need to gear yourself.

When you do the first couple fo battlegrounds, you will die. Well, duh, who doesn’t? But even when you lose, you get something out of it. You get honour. More honour means more gear. In PvE, a loss is a loss. For me, it also means 13 gold every time I die, plus whatever amount of money it cost for ammunition and other buffs. Plate armor people like Colemand have to pay even more. The money you pick up from a Naxx can help with the repairs, but that’s only if you can clear it fast enough without a lot of deaths. If you manage to wipe on Patchwerk 3-4 times, you just lost 50+ gold.

Secondly, you can do PvP whenever it’s convenient for you. This makes it so much easier to get into! For a raiding guild, you have raiding times. You must abide, or you can’t raid with them. In addition, raids will take anywhere between 2-5 hours on raid nights. PvP is whenever you feel like, for however long you feel like it, and you can leave at any point and time if there’s an emergency and no one will care.

Lastly, there’s Wintergrasp. Waltz in, get boatloads of honour, and then walk out. You get Tokens to buy more gear, and you get a chance to raid the Vault of Archavon. Most importantly, Wintergrasp is the perfect place for the beginning PvPer: gear isn’t a factor. The lowliest geared mage could walk into a tank or a turret and blast the everloving shit out of people. What’s the equivalent in PvE? Ulduar? Heck no, because the vehicles have hp based on the quality of the items you are wearing. So, gear is a requirement, and good gear at that. Good gear is expensive, and you know the rest of the story.

I’ve been testing, feeling, experimenting… use any other words you deem appropriate, but I’ve been in a dilemma.

I’ve been torn between Survival and Beastmastery for PvE for the longest time. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been dancing between the two trees. Marksmanship just isn’t my cup of tea, so it’s not in on this.

It seemed that Survival did better DPS. It STILL does. But I don’t like it. For almost half the effort, I can do more DPS in survival than I can in Beastmastery. I never have to change Aspects for more then 3 seconds, and I don’t have to worry as hard about my pet if he gets hit by a Heigan wave.

Aside from the occasional movement on my end, I don’t really do much else. I actually fell asleep at my keyboard playing like this.

Beastmastery might be an easier SPS, but it is so much more fun for some weird reason. Having to switch between Aspect of the Viper and Aspect of the Hawk creates interest. Having to worry about the movement of my pet is much more of an issue, and this creates interest. Having a pet the size of a school bus creates interest.

I have to work harder for lower DPS, but it’s more rewarding. If my Ego is telling me I should be topping the meters, I’ll tell Mr. Ego to stuff it. This isn’t about Ego: this is about being able to stay awake to play my damn game.

Allies have died in droves, my gear has become tantamount to godlike, and my skill is legendary!..

Of course, that’s all from my point of view, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Colemand says a handful, but I told him to stuff it.

In any case, I’ve got some initial reactions to PvP as a new hunter with no gear to a semi-seasoned hunter with gear.

BATTLEGROUNDS-Hit or miss. Either it rocks, or it sucks, and it’s usually never in between.

-If it is in between, it’s fun but ends in a disappointing manner for the most part.

-Retadins don’t stand a chance here. Death Knights are also easy enough.

-Actually, about retadins: most are played badly. The good ones still roflstomp me thanks to blessing of freedom completely destroying my ability to kite, and tranq shot doesn’t ever get rid of it. EVER.

-Rogues can go die in a fire.

-Mages? Ha! Warlocks? HA! Don’t even talk about druids: Feral is easy for Fafnir to kite, and resto can’t deal damage to save their lives. Boomkins, however, can prove tricky due to plate armor levels.

-About healers: I have no problem against any of them. Priests are particularly weak to me for some weird reason. They feel squishier than the rest.

-TANKS. I CAN DRIVE TANKS! *rabid* Oh, and prot anything is easily kitable, speaking of tanks.

-Eye of the Storm still sucks major bunions.

-Alterac Valley sucks more than it used to, which is impressive to say the least.

-Strand of the Ancients is the best battleground for honour farming hands down.

-Arathi Basin is fun, but it takes a long time. Longer than Alterac Valley does. That’s a sad, sad state of affairs where the 40 man raid fights are shorter than the 15 man skirmishes. *cry*

-Beastmasters have to be really careful about their pets. REALLY careful. Pays off when the pet is a Chimera though, those things ROCK. Survivalists do so much burst it makes pop rocks seem flat. Marksmanship is like a jack in the box. It waits a good 8 seconds, and then it hits like a truck.

-Chimeras own. Fafnir can crit for 1 300 on occasion, and is hard to kill too. It’s silly.

-Only way to survive a rogue is to be a beastmaster or have a very good healer. I chose to be a Beastmaster and if possible find a healer. But being a Beastmaster works for now.

-Getting the jump on the rogue presents fun times, however. Dead in 5 seconds is fun!

-Getting jumped by a rogue means death. 2 v 1, and the rogue won. Sap and Blind are an automatic 20 seconds of CC, 11 seconds minimum. Gouge is another 4.5, and the rogue cna always reset the match.

-In short, rogues control the match. Hunters are along for the ride.

-Learn to use Master’s Call or die.

-No really, it’s not useless. USE IT.

-NO REALLY.

-Same goes for your traps: make sure you use them every cooldown.

-Before even walking into an arena, have the 4 piece PvP set, an anti-CC trinket, and 1 other piece of PvP gear. If you don’t, you will die faster than you aready will even if you had that all.

-Keep your hit rating at around 168 to stay at the hit cap of 5%, or you will fail. Badly.

-I don’t care, but Orgrimmar arena ROCKS. Learn to use the terrain, even if it does seems random. No strategy in the RNG? Stop complaining! Control only makes stuff predictable: the unpredictable and how you handle it is what makes a good PvPer.

-Dalaran Sewers are… interesting. Going fwoosh is smartest for hunters since it allows you to check for humanoids before being able to be killed, and then being placed somewhere advantageous.

In any case, I have been asked some questions in my recent travels. I was traveling north from Nagrand, and I came across a few people, and they asked me the following.

Why are you leaving us when there are so many things left to do?Unfortunately, stalwart protectors of Nagrand, your quests are trivial and no longer satisfy my need for experience. At this point, slaying the massive army of Ogres that pose impending doom to your town is not in my best interest, as it’s really way too easy.

Sorry.

Why is Garrosh so mopey?It’s all Klin’s fault. Apparently, Klinderas had a dancing competition against him and won. This has left Garrosh bitter and self-loathing.

When I came to Nagrand, he immediately burst into tears, and ran to his hut saying something about “Not again! Not the gyrating hips!”

Either way, I really don’t want to know.

Do you know the pied piper?…

Go away.

How do Ethereals taste?Now, this is tricky. When ethereals die, they go poof. Poof means that they don’t have flesh, and it’s really hard to “eat” an ethereal.

However, they do leave a fine powder coating on the inside on their armor. You can scrape off the coating, and use it as a condiment. It’s pretty much pure arcane energy, so it tastes electric and sweet at the same time.

Apply on warlocks liberally. With prejudice.

Until next time everyone, enjoy your lives. Not that they really matter if you know the right people.

This is a special edition of Moviewatch: this week, we bring you music instead of a movie.

Why?

Art is, in my humble opinion, the closest thing to magic on this planet. It’s the only thing that requires only an imagination to understand and to feel on a level that influences minds, and changes the way you think. A painting can inspire you. A book can lighten your mood. A song can keep you going despite your limits.

Music is, in my opinion, also the most influential and powerful of the arts. Where literature can make you cry and laugh, and visual arts can make you do the same, music does it differently. Because of how ambiguous music is, and because of the lack of language barriers in most music, it can affect everyone. In addition, it relies on the emotions and experiences of the listener: it sounds sad because it reminds you of something sad in your life. It relies on you, not as much on the text.

The love theme from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of Patriots is one of the most beautiful things I have heard. It’s in a language I don’t understand and I still feel the sadness and agony of loss this person is singing of.